Betrayal

This is the verse that I am currently clinging to:

"God heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds" -Psalm 147:3. 

After some things happen this weekend, I am clinging and holding onto God even more... below is something I wrote on my lunch break yesterday...

Betrayal is a funny thing because it brings me closer to you.

Amidst my tears you send someone to rock me back and forth in their arms,

Wiping my tears away.

I feel your peace rest upon me.

Settling my uneasiness is what I long for.

You teach me your ways

I cling to your word, you are my devotion.

Filled with the love I long for,

I regain my strength

You give me the courage I need to face the day.

You bind my wounds as you hold my heart in your hands.

I submit to you and you bring forgiveness.

And teach me forgiveness and you raise me up.

I feel you love through the warmth of the sun on my skin.

I feel your presence in the wind as it moves and swirls around me.

I lift my voice up to you in worship and prayer for continual comfort through this time.

Thank you for your everlasting never-ending steadfast love. Amen.

In Print: Vagina Monologues and Planned Parenthood

 There it is... in print of our five newspapers for this week...
Check out our website to view the full edition of the paper.

A New Insight

Planned Parenthood: A New Insight

By: Jennifer Elrod

Recently Eve Ensler’s The Vagina Monologues debuted at the Sierra  Madre Playhouse. Performed and presented by Planned Parenthood Pasadena of San Gabriel Valley kicked off both Sunday and Monday performances to a sold out audience. The performance was in support of V-DAY 2011 Campaign to Stop Violence Against Women and Girls.

Proceeds from the two performances went to support the life-saving cervical, breast and testicular cancer screenings, contraceptive services, well-woman exams, testing and treatment for sexually transmitted infections, education and counseling visits that are just some of the many preventative health care services provided by Planned Parenthood.

Going into the performance, I was a bit nervous because of the negative stigma and publicity surrounding Planned Parenthood in media. To my surprise, I discovered all of the services and good things that Planned Parenthood does provide and that they were established in 1933. Planned Parenthood Pasadena & San Gabriel Valley is a non-profit organization whose mission is to ensure broad public access to reproductive health care and family planning through medical services, education, and advocacy.  Planned Parenthood provides birth control, life-saving cancer screenings, STD testing and treatment, screenings for common health conditions, annual exams, vaccines, and more.  All services are offered at low-to-no cost to individuals and families, and 99% of our patients have no health insurance.  Our service area extends east to west from Glendora to Glendale, and north to south from the San Gabriel Mountains to the San Bernardino Freeway. Politics aside, I think it is extremely important to provide people with education and services in health care especially with the unemployment rate at about ten-percent. 

V-Day's Spotlight Campaign for 2011 will be on the Women and Girls of Haiti. The Spotlight will highlight the high levels of violence against women and girls in Haiti, and will focus on the increased rates of sexual violence since the devastating earthquake that took place in January 2010. All funds raised through the Spotlight Campaign will be used to support a revolutionary national program in Haiti lead by a coalition of women activists - including longtime V-Day activist Elvire Eugene - that will address sexual violence through art, advocacy, safe shelter, and legal services.

Milk and Cookies...

Milk and Cookies...

The ongoing saga of the flamingo-ing continues. After receiving a more than generous donation at the start of our fundraising, we told our donor we would flock any house they wanted. Well, they can't give us addresses because it would break some confidentiality with their position, so we needed to get creative. After a few weeks of flocking and not seeing a huge financial turn over for the team, we found gold. Well, not real gold that we can take in to the Gold Guys for a high turnover amount... our gold was.... (drum roll please!!!)... an old church directory. Complete with addresses. When your fundraiser is based on showing up at people's houses... that is gold for us. So our real saga began this weekend. We have decided to hit all of the elders and pastors of the church, BEWARE.

After almost getting kinda caught this week... that will be another blog update, we decided the more houses we hit the higher potential for generating more donations and business for ourselves. So this weekend we hit three pastors and two of the elders. Each of the poster's reads with my phone number and information and when we "flock" a house there is always a fear that it will not be well received.

Well, Sunday morning at 7am I got the sweetest phone call from the wife of one of the elders. She was so excited about the flamingos. We proceeded to play a short game of phone tag until I finally got to meet her. After picking up flamingos from her yard, I knocked on the door of their home. She proceeded to invite me in and we began talking about missions and serving and flamingos. She was one of the sweetest ladies that I have ever met. She not only invited me into her home, but she fed me milk and cookies. We continued talking about fundraising and missions and I just sat there thinking this whole time how blessed I was.

Since this happen yesterday I have began pondering about hospitality and just the greatness of God. You hear of stories of milk and honey in the Bible and remembering the sweetness of the Lord. Well, maybe milk and cookies are our milk and honey of this generation. I will always remember the conversation of that day and be reminded of it every time I now have milk and cookies. 

When I grow up, I want to be like this couple. And the couple who gave us the original donation. I want to just love others, to be in love, and to serve. One thing that really blessed me about my milk and cookies couple is that, they do not have a desire to serve in missions but God has really blessed them with the opportunity to serve in many other ways and to serve financially in sending people like myself and my team and other members from our church. They offer up milk and cookies... they offer up their front yard for yard sales and they open up their ears and hearts to hear my stories and they share theirs. Also there was such a joy in the way they talked, you could see it and maybe even feel it or sense the presence of God in their home and in their lives. I hope to have them and to show and share that with others...

The Final Product... Flamingo Article

Here it is... read it and weep. :P

Or view the paper online at:

http://arcadiaweekly.com/print-edition/arcadia-weekly-march-24-2011/

Page 11!

Tickled Pink

 Below is an article I wrote for our newspaper, it is editing now and I'll post the article once complete as well...

Tickled Pink???

By: Jennifer Elrod

Remember the days of TP-ing (toilet papering) friend’s homes amidst sleepovers and the mischievousness of adolescence. The worst is once your home was TP-ed, the next morning the mess had to be cleaned up. Well, a local church group is taking the concept of TP-ing a new level. Instead of waking up to a yard and house covered in toilet paper, you instead a faced with a sea of pink flamingos?! “Tickled Pink,” a poster reads from the front yard.

Last weekend, a small group from Christ’s Church of the Valley in San Dimas filled an Arcadia home’s front yard with approximately 30 plastic pink flamingos. Accompanied with the pretty pink birdies are posters stating “Flamingo Flocking Fundraiser” and a note of instructions attached to one of the birds. This group of five of the eleven Team Peru members (The Flamingo Flockers) has come up with a new and creative fundraising idea.

How it works? Donations are made to the church for the team given with an address of a person to “flock”. At night, the group goes to the requested house and fills its yard with 20-30 plastic pink flamingos. The homeowner can then request another house for the birds to migrate to for a donation. All flamingos are removed within 24 hours of the bird’s first appearance in the yard. The cycle of migration continues until the completion of the fundraiser.  

The group is raising money for a two-week missions trip to Peru. The group of 11 team members will travel to Cusco, Peru. Cusco is primarily a tourist location which is expensive for the locals; therefore there are many poor families in the area. Some ministry opportunities for the group include service with feeding programs, evangelism, working in a children’s hospital with special needs children, and home-visit prayer teams. The trip, including support of missionaries there, is approximately $2,500. “Fundraising is extremely important to the team because it allows team members to raise support if they cannot personally sponsor the trip. We have set a goal to do two fundraisers a month,” said Jennifer Elrod, a 24-year old team member from Azusa.

However, the group’s fundraising efforts were halted two weeks ago when 25 out of 50 birds were stolen from an Upland yard of one of the team’s leaders home after being “flocked”. A police report was made with the Upland Police Department, although little can be done. The CCV Team Peru group originally paid $50 to rent the 50 birds from a local girl scout troop for a month. They since had to purchase more flamingos and extra for back up. The team found a wholesaler who sold them the birds for $2.25 each. To pay for the missing birds, the team had to take $112.50 out of its Peru fund. “We’re still ready to go, they can’t hold us down,” said 21-year old Charlie Chavez, one of the Peru Flamingo Flockers.

Christ’s Church of the Valley is located at 1404 W. Covina Blvd, San Dimas.

And so it begins...

And so... I am back... here is to hoping that I can actually keep this consistent more so than before. I have so much to say and so much the catch you fellow followers and bloggers up the speed on. But to start you off... I recently was able to hack into my myspace acount after almost three years. Why you ask? Well, blog reader... I wrote some interesting stuff on the old myspace, so here is one thing I wrote in 2008... enjoy... we'll be chatting soon...

How did I get here? When I promise myself I'd never return back to this place of hurt confusion...:n

Each time I try and each time I fail.

I scream aloud but no one can hear me,

My voice just seems to echo for miles.

Does anyone know this pain I feel?

I doubt it because I continually have to put on this happy face and pretend nothing is ever wrong.

I haven't found anyone willing to dig deeper.

Why can't I find someone to jump with me into the unknown?

I know you exist, but yet each person I hope is you, is not.

But the truth of the matter is, I'm scared.

I'm afraid to give anyone a glimpse for fear of getting hurt again,

Then I'll be back where I started from,

Hating myself for blurring  the lines, where I'm stuck in this unexplainable sadness.

Is it true you have to go through a world of hurt to find happiness?

God is my refuge, and my strength.

But can he protect me from this happening again?

Can I learn to protect myself and trust in you?

I'm grabbing onto His hand and holding on for dear life,

But still I feel like im sinking into a world where I don't know how to survive and be set free.

I'm sure this hurt was never intended, by any means,

But yet it happen… again.

And I feel left here alone.

Damaged, broken, and used is what I am, here where I stand.

I am trying to heal, but am caught in this unending cycle.

I'm so tired.

I am tired of waiting, tired of wanting, and tired of having to wish for things to change.

I'm losing hope quickly and looking to find comfort in someone who understands.

Can my heart and head ever agree?

One feels the love, passion, happiness, pain, and hurt of it all, while one knows it and knows right from wrong.

Can I ever learn and love with both, can they coexist and work together, it that even possible?

Wish me luck as I try to figure it all out...

-Posted February, 4, 2008

Another one called: "To Love Again"

Sometimes your heart hurts and your feel pain in places you didn't know you could,

Yet you get up each day ready to start fresh in hopes that today will be better,

And it is when you believe and hope in what you never thought you could.

Having faith when you don't know why yet knowing its right.

Loving when you thought you couldn't love again.

Yearning and wanting a love that you've maybe never experienced,

Yet know that it exists because that hope and faith lives within your heart.

It dwells there healing the brokenness and emptiness,

When you thought you'd never be the same again,

Yet now you're even better than before and ready for anything

Ready to love and be loved and to learn what love is.

So I wait here patiently waiting for that love to find me because it is your grace,

That has saved me and gives me the ability

To love again.

-Posted November 24, 2007

"Unrequited love"

Tonight I was working on a paper and watching the movie The Holiday and it made me start thinking about some of the quotes from the movie...

"Journeys end when lovers meet.

For some love fades, for others love is simply lost, but then of course love can also be found, even if just for the night. And then there is another kind of love, the one that almost kills its victims, unrequited love."

"Being in love with a man who will not love me back"…

Why are you so great?.. a question often posed in movies and even in life. Posed to the woman from the man, yet the woman never ends up with the man. She is so great yet never great enough for the man. Now true, that most of the times the man does not deserve the woman because he is a loser or db, but even sometimes I have heard that, "you are wife material". Also this is the same, what does that even mean. Is it possible to be wife material but not girlfriend material. Sometimes I even get the comment, you're such a mom. I think it is possible to care for someone so much that it may resemble the way a mother cares for her children. I don't have to be a mom to love others, to bake and cook, and to care for others so much that often times you forget to care for yourself.

Back to the stuff about love: "the one that almost kills its victims, unrequited love", "being in love with a man who will not love me back". Umm… this describes me almost to a T from a past relationship. To be committed to someone yet they can never fully make the commitment back, so you're left there hanging alone as you have poured out your heart as you wait there for something in return yet it never comes. I've moved on past this for quite some time now, but thinking back I don't know if I would have changed anything because I learned so much about myself and so much what I want and about God through this confusing and complicated relationship. Man, was I a victim for sometime, but now I can look back at it and see how far I have come and what I have learned since that night I decided to let go and let God take care of it all. It was one of the best decisions that I have ever made and yet we still remain friends. I wonder if he ever knew how deeply I truly felt. I must say it'll be a little awkward when we see each other soon and I give him his Christmas gift, which I bought months and months ago before it all ended and I changed and my life was changed when I traveled to a new place. Who knew it would take 3,000 miles to realize all of this, yet it was the best experience of my life and I learned and grew so much.

-Posted November 24, 2007